Any type of communications system has an associated communication protocol that governs the data being sent in each direction over the communications system. For example, the Internet and computer networks have communications protocols, such as TCP/IP. Furthermore, different applications that communicate over the Internet have their own protocols, such as simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) for e-mail applications. A protocol specifies the data and commands that are communicated between the parties. Most communications protocols are a request and response type protocol in which one party generates a request and expects to receive a response prior to continuing communications. A typical protocol is therefore very susceptible to packet loss during the communications session. For example, in a typical protocol, the loss of a response packet may delay or derail the communication between the parties.
In most communications protocols, it is important to be able to uniquely identify each communications session at a particular time. For example, it is important to be able to distinguish each communications session from every other communications session. In the context of an e-mail communications protocol, the header of an email message will identify the sender and intended recipient of the email message. In the context of a voice communications session, such as a voice over IP call, it is necessary to differentiate the digital data streams associated with each conversion. In more detail, it is desirable to avoid collisions between the telephone calls and their digital data streams wherein two distinct data streams are identified by the same identifier. It is also desirable to avoid identifier collisions when the identification of those calls is stored in a database. Furthermore, if one wants to merge several databases of telephone calls, it is desirable to have a unique identification for each telephone call. In most current systems, a particular identification for a telephone call is often re-used so that it is likely that a collision will occur. Thus, it is desirable to provide a globally unique identification for communications protocols and databases and it is to this end that the present invention is directed.